Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer says Tumblr is still behind on mobile

Reiterating long-standing comments from Tumblr founder David Karp, Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer furthered Tumblr’s mobile narrative today with an interesting comment: she believes the service is still behind on mobile.

In Mayer’s words, “last year was the year we really invested in mobile. We’re late. We’re behind.”

The comment arose when ousted TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington asked the Yahoo chief why Tumblr is not in the top 100 apps on iOS. Funny enough, Yahoo did break into the top 100 in the U.S. yesterday, according to App Annie.

According to Mayer:

We think we’re making big strides in mobile. There’s still more to do. … When I got to Yahoo, mobile was a hobby, but it was nobody’s job.

This news, perhaps ironically, follows our coverage of Tumblr’s new in-app theming features. As we wrote yesterday, “Back in 2012, Tumblr was busy playing catch up after failing to hop on the mobile trend. Since then, the company has made great strides, and now, according to Vidani, the app is no longer just an extension of the website.”

Mayer shares that, upon her arrival to Yahoo, the company staffed just 30 core mobile developers. Today, Mayer claims that number is now 500 people.

Perhaps most interestingly, Mayer claims that “by the end of this year, we will actually have more mobile traffic than PC traffic.” Although Mayer’s comment holds Tumblr under the opossum’s paw, she certainly projected confidence in Tumblr’s mobile efforts going forward.